Record number of local councils oppose London City expansion proposals

 19/10/19

The London City consultation closed yesterday. A record number of local authorities have objected to the expansion proposals in London City’s Master Plan. Tower Hamlets, Newham, Hackney, Waltham Forest, Redbridge, Havering and Lewisham have objected.  Never before has London City faced this level of opposition. The London Assembly has also objected.  We have not yet seen the responses from the Mayor of London or from Bexley, Greenwich or Barking and Dagenham.  We will put them up when we know them.

A final Master Plan is expected late 2019/early 2020, with a planning application on the proposals it wants to take forward submitted in Spring 2020.

For more details on the vibrant campaign against the expansion plans visit the site of our sister organisation HACAN East: www.hacaneast.org.uk 

Committee on Climate Change: growth needs to almost halve if aviation is to meet its climate targets by 2050

strictly embargoed until 00.01 24/9/19


The Committee on Climate Change(CCC), the Government’s official advisers, has said in a report out today that growth at UK airports needs to be almost half the predicted levels if aviation is to meet the government’s target of aviation being net-zero carbon by 2050.

The CCC, chaired by former Conservation minister Lord Deben, said, “In the absence of a true zero-carbon plane, demand cannot continue to grow unfettered over the long-term. Our scenario reflects a 25% growth in demand by 2050 compared to 2018 levels. This compares to current Government projections which are for up to a 49% increase in demand over the same period.”

It says that, if the growth currently planned for London’s airports went ahead, that would leave ‘at most very limited room for growth at non-London airports’.

The report explained, “The Government should assess its airport capacity strategy in the context of net zero. Specifically, investments will need to be demonstrated to make economic sense in a net-zero world and the transition towards it. Current planned additional airport capacity in London, including the third runway at Heathrow, is likely to leave at most very limited room for growth at non-London airports”.

The CCC comes up with a number of suggestions for managing demand: “Measures should be put in place to limit growth in demand to at most 25% above current levels by 2050. These could include carbon pricing, a frequent flyer levy, fiscal measures to ensure aviation is no under-taxed compared to other transport sectors (e.g. fuel duty, VAT), reforms to Air Passenger Duty, or management of airport capacity.”

John Stewart, chair of HACAN, the campaign group which gives a voice to residents under the Heathrow flight paths, said, “The big message of the report is that unfettered demand cannot continue.  The Committee on Climate Change is challenging the Government to find ways of managing demand.”

ENDS

Notes for Editors:

(1). Report
http://hacan.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Letter-to-Prime-Minister.pdf 

For more information:

John Stewart on 07957385650

Committee on Climate Change: UK growth needs to almost halve

24/9/19

The Committee on Climate Change(CCC), the Government’s official advisers, has said in a report out today that growth at UK airports needs to be almost half the predicted levels if aviation is to meet the government’s target of aviation being net-zero carbon by 2050.

The CCC, chaired by former Conservation minister Lord Deben, said, “In the absence of a true zero-carbon plane, demand cannot continue to grow unfettered over the long-term. Our scenario reflects a 25% growth in demand by 2050 compared to 2018 levels. This compares to current Government projections which are for up to a 49% increase in demand over the same period.”

It says that, if the growth currently planned for London’s airports went ahead, that would leave ‘at most very limited room for growth at non-London airports’.

The report explained, “The Government should assess its airport capacity strategy in the context of net zero. Specifically, investments will need to be demonstrated to make economic sense in a net-zero world and the transition towards it. Current planned additional airport capacity in London, including the third runway at Heathrow, is likely to leave at most very limited room for growth at non-London airports”.

The CCC suggests a number of measures to manage demand.

see full report https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/letter-international-aviation-and-shipping/?fbclid=IwAR02ATq1zfIerOiPGwQZav7C5qyb1TFz8tJVGWTu08JRlMv7aocfYc97Mjs

see HACAN press release: https://hacan.org.uk/?p=5829

see HACAN article on why electric planes may do little for noise: electric planes

London City’s new planes much less quiet than claimed

Evidence has emerged that the new quieter planes which London City is relying on to manage future noise levels if its controversial expansion plans go through are much less quiet in reality than it has forecast.

The evidence is in a study which London City commissioned but which it has not yet published:https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A15b51eb7-0f32-4d3c-9317-c01ea1fae5c1.

Here is the link to the press release our sister organisation HACAN East has released:  https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A3a311ceb-3bc0-4bb4-946c-b91ee2881089

Boris and the third runway

Will Boris bulldoze the Heathrow third runway?

Boris once rang me up.  It was a bit incongruous really.  Here was I standing on the deserted platform of  Isleworth rail station in West London, with the Mayor of London on my mobile.  He was congratulating me on my work in campaigning against a third runway and urging me to stand firm.

I am certain Boris doesn’t like the third runway.  He’s probably not too keen on a second runway at Gatwick either.  And he opposed the last expansion plans at London City Airport.  His dream remains Boris Island, the off-shore Estuary Airport, or something similar: a big new airport – away from a populated area – that can compete on the world stage. 

There will be intense pressure from all sides on Boris, now that he is Prime Minister, over the third runway.  Which way will he jump?

I don’t think we will know the answer to that for some time.  Brexit is his priority.  His current cabinet is there to deliver Brexit.  It includes strong supporters of a third runway like transport secretary Grant Schapps as well as committed opponents like environment secretary Theresa Villiers.

Boris has been very careful to keep his options open.  Last week Parliament he gave an interesting answer to the Green MP Caroline Lucas when she asked about 3rd runway:  “The bulldozers are some way off but I’m following with lively interest the court cases because I share her concerns about air quality and about pollution.”  No commitment to stop it or build it.

I suspect, though, that never before have so many key opponents of a third runway had the ear of a Prime Minister:

Sir Edward Lister, his chief of staff, for 19 years the leader of Wandsworth Council, a consistent critic of a third runway

Theresa Villiers, his Secretary of State for the Environment, the person who when shadow Transport Secretary in the late 1990s, played a key role in persuading David Cameron to come out against the third runway

Zac Goldsmith, appointed to Boris’s Government to work on environment and animal welfare issues across two Government departments, DEFRA and Dfid, famously resigned his seat and fought a by-election on the issue of a third runway

Daniel Moylan, Boris’s aviation adviser when he was London Mayor and who is still close to Boris and, as an ardent Bexiteer, is expected to given a role in the Brexit negotiations 

Ray Puddifoot, the long-time leader of Hillingdon Council, the borough which includes Boris’s own Uxbridge constituency, is an implacable opponent of a third runway.  Hillingdon has put a huge amount of money into fighting it: in supporting residents and the wider opposition movements and in helping to fund legal challenges.  Indeed, it is thought that Puddifoot’s strategy has been to delay the new runway long enough in the hope Boris would one day become Prime Minister.

If Boris was minded to drop a third runway when would be do it?  My view is that he is likely to let the current consultation and probably next year’s Public Inquiry run their course.  In early 2021 the Government will need to make the final decision on the third runway.  This would be Boris’s opportunity to drop it if he was so minded.  If he did so before the proposal for the new runway had gone through the formal planning procedures, the Government would almost certainly need to find billions of pounds to compensate Heathrow for the work it has done.

Zac Goldsmith would not stay in a Government which gave a new runway the go-ahead and Ray Puddifoot and others would feel badly let down.

Could Boris sell a no third runway strategy to his cabinet and party? Perhaps only if he offered them the realistic prospect of a world-class airport elsewhere.  Business would want the same.  Or else this would be seen as the biggest ‘F… Business’ of all time.  

Heathrow would be devastated.  And rightly so.  Although I have spent many years opposing a third runway, I recognise Heathrow has put a lot of time and money into trying to mitigate and manage its impacts in a way few airports in the world have ever done.

But perhaps Heathrow and its business backers will persuade Boris to overcome his own instincts and the beliefs of some of his closest colleagues and permit the expansion.  

What we do know is that the third runway is currently in that strangest of places:  in planning terms it is closer than ever before; but in power is a Prime Minister who threatens it more than any of his predecessors.     

John Stewart 

John Stewart chairs HACAN which gives a voice to residents under the Heathrow flight paths

Residents dismayed by London City plans to double flights

Residents are dismayed by the London City expansion revealed in its Master Plan published today.  The airport wants to lift the current cap of 111,000 flights allowed each year to 137,000 by 2030 and to 151,000 by 2035. Last year there were just over 75,000 flights.

 The airport also wants to get rid of the ban on flights between 12.30pm Saturday and 12,30pm on Sunday.  Additionally it is proposing that more flights are allowed to operate in the early morning and late evening.

 John Stewart, chair of HACAN East, which gives a voice to residents under the airport’s flight paths, said, “For all its green talk, this plan would be disastrous for residents.  Flight numbers could double from today’s levels.  And, to rub in the pain, the airport is looking to ease the restrictions at weekends and in the early morning and late evening.”

 The consultation ruins from 28th June to 20th September.

 London City would need to go to a Planning Inquiry to get permission for any proposals it intends to take forward.

Summary in HACAN East Newsletter

Our sister organisation HACAN East has produced a 3 page briefing to help people who want to respond to the consultation: briefing

HACAN East has also produced FREEPOST postcards which you can download and send to the airport if you object to the expansion proposals: postcard  or this one: postcard two 

Black and white versions black and white postcard or this one black and white postcard two

And here are posters to download and display: poster

And black and white version: poster black and white

Read our look at why London City is going for this expansion, plus an assessment of its strategy and whether it will succeed: article

Read draft Master Plan Summary: 

Read London City Press Release

For full details of the consultation: https://www.londoncityairport.com/corporate/consultation

 The full consultation document: https://assets.ctfassets.net/ggj4kbqgcch2/2mPk96XvzYbi3gJiSB6kbQ/8348be50e732fb0aa1daba2fb18b9516/p01-85_LCY_MP_Final_Reduced.pdfIs London City softening us up for expansion:  Read the HACAN East blog: click here

Breaking News:  16/08/19:  Campaigners have welcomed today’s call by Newham Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz for London City to halt its consultation on expanding the airport until it provides more detail on how it plans to tackle noise and climate emissions.In a letter to City Airport chief executive Robert Sinclair the mayor called the consultation “fundmentally flawed.”

“The significance of this move by the mayor cannot be overstated.  Newham is the planning authority for the airport.  This letter throws down the gauntlet to the airport to come up with a Master Plan that works for residents and for the climate.”

Read the HACAN East press release: press release 

Details of Aviation Green Paper Consultation, now closed – includes HACAN response

The Government published its Green Paper with proposals for its new aviation strategy at the end of last year which it will finalise and release in the second half of 2019.  The consultation ended on 20th June 2019.

Read HACAN’s response:  HACAN Consultation Response

Read the response of HACAN East: Aviation Green Paper HACAN East response

For more details of the consultation, plus HACAN’s briefing on it: https://hacan.org.uk/?p=5068

Heathrow Third Runway Consultation Launched

PRESS RELEASE

17/6/19 embargoed until 18/6/19

‘A MEGA PROJECT WITH A MEGA IMPACT ON LOCAL COMMUNITIES’

Heathrow today launched a three month consultation into its plans for a controversial third runway which it hopes to open in 2026.  The consultation includes proposals to build the new runway over the M25 as well plans to re-route local rivers, replace utilities and bring in changes to the road network.

In the consultation the airport also sets out its plans to mitigate the effects of expansion, including property compensation, noise insulation, a community compensation fund as well as measures to deal with noise, air pollution, carbon, and other environmental impacts.

It does not, though, reveal the location of the new flight paths.  Heathrow, in conjunction with the air traffic controllers, is still working these up following an airspace consultation earlier this year.  A further consultation on flight paths is expected in 2021 when the detailed routes will be revealed.

Today’s consultation does ask for views on noise envelopes.  These will provide the framework within which Heathrow will be allowed to grow.  They will set the noise parameters which it cannot break.

The consultation also provides more detailed information on how Heathrow is proposing to implement the 6.5 hour night flight ban it is required to introduce as a condition of building a third runway.

There are also more details on runway alternation (which provides for periods of respite from the noise) and on plans to replace westerly preference with managed preference (1).

Heathrow is asking for views on its controversial proposal to bring in an 25,000 extra flights per year in advance of a third runway opening.

John Stewart, the chair of HACAN, the campaign group which opposes a third runway, said, “What hits you is the scale of these proposals.  The impact on local people could be severe for many years to come.  Disruption from construction; the demolition of homes; the reality of more than 700 extra planes a day.”

The consultation is a statutory requirement of the Development Consent Order (DCO) process.  Heathrow intends to put its final plans before a Planning Inquiry in summer 2020.  The inspectors overseeing the Inquiry will make a recommendation to the Secretary of State for Transport in 2021.  The Secretary of State has the final decision on whether or not to give the expansion plans the go-ahead.

ENDS

Notes for Editors:

(1). At present Heathrow operates ‘westerly preference’ whereby planes land from the east not only when a west wind is blowing but also if there is an east wind of up to about 5 knots.  Heathrow will be proposing a move away from westerly preference to managed preference.  This will allow the direction of the planes to be switched (wind permitting) more often.  If the wind is medium – strong planes must land and depart into the wind but there is more leeway when the wind is less strong. Managed preference would allow more flexibility than is permitted by westerly preference.  For example, it could allow communities to be given some days of relief during a very long period of east or west winds.  It would also make it easier to adhere to the respite periods.

For further information:  John Stewart on 0207 737 6641 or 07957385650